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Grandma’s Perfect Apple Pie

Due to the surplus of apples from my parents, I finally attempted to make my Grandma’s Perfect Apple Pie recipe. My grandma was famous for her delicious pies. We had enough apples for me to make this recipe twice and you’ll see a couple of things I did differently.

Filling Ingredients:

6 cups of thinly sliced peeled apples

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tbsp. lemon juice

Stir the filling ingredients together. The second time around I did not have any lemon juice on hand to use so I omitted it and couldn’t tell a difference so if you don’t have this item, I wouldn’t stress about it. It smells delicious already!

Here’s what you need for the crust:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup shortening

5-7 tbsp. ice cold water

Stir flour and salt together, cut in shortening until crumbly. Add cold water, 1 tbsp. at a time, until dough clings together. Form into tow balls, wrap in plastic and chill 15 minutes. I have found I only need 3-4 tbsp. of ice water when making the crust and not the 5-6 tbsp. in the recipe.

The first time I made the crust, this is where I got cocky. I’d always heard how hard it was to make a pie crust and at this point I thought it had been super easy. Lazy amateurs. Well, I hadn’t tried to roll out the dough and place it in the pie pan. The dough stuck to everything. I couldn’t pull the dough off my surface to place in the pan. I got so desperate that I rolled out the dough on a cutting board, placed the pie pan on the dough, flipped it over, and then eased the dough loose from the cutting board. To get the dough to cover the pie, I ended up peeling pieces of dough off the surface and squeezing them all together. Not beautiful, but it still tasted good! At that point, I realized why people like to buy premade crusts.

I found a trick online to use to prevent these issues which I used the second time around. What a difference it made! You need two pieces of plastic wrap. Place your first piece on the counter and flour it well. Place your ball of dough on the floured plastic, add some flour to the dough, and place the second piece of plastic wrap on top. Then start rolling out your dough!

Once you have the dough in the desired shape and thickness you simply peel the top layer of plastic off the dough. Then you may flip the dough into the pie pan or you can peel the dough off the wrap and place it in the pie pan. I felt it was easier to flip the dough in while it was still on the plastic wrap.

Now you pour the filling into the pie pan and place the top layer of dough over the apples. Pinch the pastry edges together and flute. Cut several slits in the top crust for steam to escape. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, until juices form bubbles that burst.

I still need to work on making the edges look nice, but it doesn’t affect the taste! I like to serve the pie warm with a scoop of ice cream on top. The first pie I made, it was just the husband and I to taste it and we thought it was great. For my second attempt, my parents were here as testers. My Mom was going to be my main judge as it was her mom’s recipe. She and my dad both gave the pie their approval! Phew!

I told my mom about my issues with the dough sticking and the plastic wrap trick. Her response? “Oh yes, I know about that trick-it works so well.” Well way to include that in the recipe you gave me! Thanks a lot, Mom.